The President of the Maldives said that “under certain circumstances” a country dependent on tourism could start accepting tourists from Asia.
A number of resort islands are currently under surveillance for suspected cases of Covid-19. The Maldives, hit hard by the pandemic travel freeze, is gearing up to resume doing business, at least for visitors from China and other Asian countries, the president said.
Ibrahim Mohammed Solih said the country could be reopened to Chinese, South Korean and Japanese markets by the end of April, Maldives news site SunOnline reported on March 25. These circumstances include no cases of infection in the Maldives, Solih said.
Sadly, the next day, SunOnline reported that the government had begun surveillance of two resorts, Grand Park Kodhipparu and Jah Manafaru, which had reported suspected cases of Covid-19. The Riti Beach resort is also being monitored.
Chinese tourists visited the Maldives the most last year with 284,029, according to the Ministry of Tourism, accounting for nearly 17 percent of the total (1.7 million). Flights from China were suspended by the Maldives on February 3 as the coronavirus spread outside Wuhan. At his press conference, Solih predicted that the Maldives tourism industry will “stabilize” for a year, and said tourists are already making plans to return to rest.
“The main part of our industry is tourism. For example, Germany announced that the virus in the country has been localized, ”Solih said. He stated that German tour operators are already discussing summer bookings with their Maldivian counterparts.
- If so, then this is already progress. “A massive boom in the tourism industry is expected in the last quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2021,” the president said.
